In the past few days, some people have left a message to the editor, saying that you write here every day to write Ganling self-congratulations, and there is no such place as "Shangganling" in the history of the US military, which is a small battle that people do not care about at all. Originally, I did not want to pay attention to such remarks, but I still felt the need to let everyone know how the "Shangganling" was described in the us military's war history.
The Battle of Shangganling, recorded in the history of the U.S. Army, is 7 pages long, and two of the hills are named after stars
In the history of the US military, there is indeed no place name "Shangganling", because people do not call it this name. The famous 597.9 heights and 537.7 highlands in Shangganling were called "Triangle Hill" (and rounded to 598 highlands) and "Sandy Ridge" by the U.S. military, respectively, while the Battle of Shangganling was called "Operation Showdown".
In the Chinese dictionary, "showdown" means to put out all the cards in the hand and compare the size of the opponent, and then determine the winner in one game. However, judging from the fact that Van Vleet was initially only prepared to dispatch two battalions of troops, this is a big gap with the "showdown", so it is likely that after the defeat of the battle, the US army re-took such a "atmospheric" name in order to save face.
The 60 rockets used by the U.S. Army in the Battle of Shangganling
On the front at that time, the volunteer army was in a positive offensive posture, and a large number of battalion and company attacks killed and injured a large number of allied forces. In order to break this situation, the U.S. Military planned to organize a limited offensive, with two battalions of troops and 16 battalions of artillery support.
The "Military Volume of the Encyclopedia of China" records that the Battle of Shangganling developed from the battle to the scale of the battle, and its duration and intensity of the battle were unprecedented after World War II. The war history of the US military records that the Battle of Shangganling was the most out-of-control battle in the history of the US army.
In the Battle of Shangganling, the Ethiopian battalions attached to the US 7th Division were equipped with body armor
Two battalions were planned, which eventually became more than 60,000 men. The plan paid the price of 200 people, and finally became 25,498 people. The battle was planned to be completed in 5 days, and finally 43 days were fought. On positions of less than 3.7 square kilometers, the U.S. army fired 1.97 million shells, and the volunteers fired 410,000 rounds, an average of 76 rounds per square meter. It is the most dense firepower since World War II.
Regarding the casualties of the Coalition forces in this battle, there are several records of the enemy, such as Walter Helms's "American Troops in the Korean War", volume 01, page 367: In 12 days, the American troops suffered more than 5,200 casualties, and the 187th Airborne Battle Group suffered unprecedented heavy losses.
Qin Jiwei commanding the Battle of Shangganling (second from left)
This figure is basically consistent with the record of Jiang Wenfeng, the commander of the pseudo-2nd Division, who wrote in his memoirs: It was originally a mission to attack the US army, but it could not regain it by paying more than 400 casualties every day, so it gave the task to our division, in other words, to ask us to be american soldiers. We and American soldiers are also human beings, so isn't that telling us to sacrifice for them?
And the diary of the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 31st Regiment of the 7th Division, Newborne, wrote: ... By the 25th, 10 infantry battalions had been mobilized to fight, with more than 2,000 casualties. Some of the officers of the company were all killed, and they could not capture Jane Russell Hill (Jane Russell and Sandy were famous American stars at that time, and the officers named the mountain to boost morale), and we decided not to carry it hard. ...... On the 25th, the 7th Division withdrew from the battle and placed its positions under the responsibility of the (pseudo)2nd Division.
Stretcher teams with local surnames carried the wounded of the volunteers down the line of fire
Although the numbers recorded are different, it is an indisputable fact that the casualties of the US military are huge. The volunteers fought this battle with great bravery, and a large number of heroic teams and individuals emerged. There are only more than 200 collectives above the third class of the 15th Army, and 12,347 people who have been awarded the third class or above of the individual. After the end of the war, of the 19 "model heroes and figures of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea," 6 took part in the Battle of Shangganling.
The military history of the 15th Army records that grenades, explosive packs, explosive canisters and enemy casualties abounded in times of crisis, and there were 67 famous people, and more were nameless. Like Huang Jiguang, there are 38 heroes who block the gun hole with their chests. In the face of the desperately powerful firepower of the U.S. military, they have never flinched.